What began as a simple journey has turned into so much more...

Don't you remember the many we murdered together, Arkara-el?

In the darkness of the forests north of The Line, Ssussun was not having a pleasant time of things. The orcs had retreated, but had sent trolls in to keep the Alliance from advancing. Even Ssussun’s elite scout team was having difficulty making any tactically significant hidden strikes, as the damned things kept regenerating any wound not caused by fire… and it was hard to hide a flame’s light. The moon was a mere sliver of its former self, providing enough darkness for a perfect raid… if only he could find a vulnerable target. Suddenly, in a flash of pure radiance, a being of fire and elegance stood before him, a symbol of pure white light blazing on its forehead. Before it had fully formed, Ssussun had his weapon out.

“Be still, warrior of light,” said the creature in a celestine tongue that any would understand. “I mean you no harm, but bring a message from the Lord of Morning, who dwells with Pelor in splendor.” As it spoke, Ssussun heard a distant call of trumpets echoing from a far-off realm.

Though its arrival had destroyed any hope of a surprise attack from this location, the drow felt an inherent trust of the angel before him. He sheathed his sword and knelt before the trumpet archon. “Speak your words, messenger. I will hear and obey.”

“When Lathander’s light reaches your home, it will see an orcish attack on your nation, and a specific strike against your family. The perpetrator is one of your victims, returned with Gruumsh’s blessing to destroy your land. But you will need to face a larger foe while he is dealt with. Go now if you hope to stop them.”

. + . + . + . + . + . + . + . + . + . + . + .Sikel slept uneasily in the cheap tavern next to the City of the Dead. It wasn’t the many bodies nearby… no, those often gave him comfort. Nor was it the rituals he would help perform on the grave of Mirt the Moneylender after the burial… there were more than enough death priests in the city to handle that task without him. It was something else… a nagging in the back of his head that something was not right… that something needed his specific kind of repair. Unable to determine what it was, he allowed himself to drift off to the land of dreams.

In his dreams, Sikel saw a dark elf racing through the darkness, rushing south towards Waterdeep with more haste than seemed possible. Sikel recognized the Drow… he fulfilled a similar role to Sikel’s, but for the Church of Pelor. Ssussun was his name, and he and Sikel had worked to destroy a cell of Kargatane assassins about a year earlier.

Sikel’s vision jumped, and he saw a sign welcoming visitors to Dambrath. He saw a guard house near a graveyard by the border. Then he saw what was in the graveyard, and what was manifesting in that graveyard. The shock of what he saw woke Sikel in a panicked cold sweat.

Moments later, he was outside the door to the inn in the pre-dawn light, speaking to one of the Raven Queen’s altar boys, an elf known for his speed. Sikel handed him a small figure of black stone in the shape of a horse, the twin to one in his other hand. “You must go to the north gate with all haste, and then continue northward. You will pass a Drow rushing south, a soldier of the Sun. You are to give him this, tell him it is from me, and tell him that I will hold it off as long as I can. Tell him to hurry.”

With that, Sikel used the remaining figure to conjure a steed of smoke and magic, and began racing south, hoping that he’d reach Dambrath in time.
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[NOTE: Due to several factors, Mike/Karath, Micah/Nicolai, and Casey/Nulath were not present for this game. As Micah & Casey’s absence was unplanned and last-minute, we had their characters “in the background” for this session, and used simplified versions of them for the combat. Mike’s character, as you’ll see below, wasn’t around for long, but that was a planned absence, so I had a story reason set up to remove him.]

The devil “Lee” sat casually with Akara/Valarie and Karath, chatting pleasantly while the rest of the party was off in the Elemental Chaos (see previous session). Lee was very inquisitive about Akara’s Deva nature, as he’d had little chance to actually speak with deva in casual conversation. He also mentioned that if she ever got tired of reincarnating, she could sign a deal with him which would guarantee her soul went elsewhere. He also spoke of the ritual he’d traded to The Unknown Soldier, claiming that it was a more advanced necromantic spell that didn’t just raise random undead, but allowed the caster to call forth specific dead souls of creatures whose names he knew. Since it looked like the Unknown Soldier had been some kind of general in the orcish army, this did not bode well for the people of Dambrath, who might soon be overrun with undead orcish hordes.

While Akara tried to be noncommittal in conversation, Karath outright rude, holding tomes in front of his face as he pointedly ignored the devil (the D&D equivalent of rustling a newspaper & doing the crossword puzzle while someone is speaking). When Karath finished fake-reading the first tome, he reached for the next, not realizing until it was out that it was the Vecnal tome they’d taken off the necromancer… the tome that had somehow turned the Warforged Mecha Unit Delta comatose back in Cormyr.

Lee noticed the book before Karath could put it back, though, and seemed very surprised and started asking questions, saying that it was quite a dangerous item. Karath casually said that there was nothing on the pages now, opening the book to show the blank pages. Unfortunately, THEPAGES WEREN’T BLANK, and after looking down at them, the words swirled and Karath’s body went limp. Lee was fascinated, in a clinical way, to see the item working. He said it looked like a rare Vecnal magic item known as a “Book of Ultimate Amnesia”, a tome said to be so full of powerful secrecy magic that it could make a body forget the soul that was in it. Of course, Lee said, that rumor also hid another secret… that in fact what the tomes did was transport souls elsewhere. Lee had no way to track the souls, as he said his people didn’t really deal much with safely transporting souls to non-Hell areas.

As Lee & Akara spoke about the item and the likely location/condition of Karath’s soul, a rift in the dimensional fabric appeared, with a haggard-looking Eladrin ghost family holding the rift open. They asked Lee if he’d been able to save Serenity (see “The Elf-Slaying Storm” on the Bard’s Tale page), and he casually shrugged and said “Sorry friends, it just didn’t work out that way.” Utterly defeated, their spirits dissipated.

The rest of the party emerged just after that, and quick updates were given. Lee was very happy with the progress the party had made and with all the contracts they’d managed to copy, and he rewarded them with a bonus: 5,000 GP and a bag of holding (lvl 5). He further offered a magic item to keep Karath’s body healthy until the unlikely event of his soul’s return, a Belt of Sustenance (lvl 7). He then went on his way north towards Waterdeep, whistling as he left [OOC note: the tune was “Time is on My Side” by the Rolling Stones].

The party set about trying to make wheelbarrows or other carrying devices for the now three unambulatory forms they had to carry (Kyone in her crystal, the warforged M.U.D., and the comatose Karath). As they tried to scrounge wood from the rotted stables and nearby forest, Scout/Johny heard hoofbeats coming from the north. While the rest of the party hid, Scout stood in the middle of the road, waving his arms. Soon a huge (2 lanes wide, 2 stories tall) carriage pulled by 8 Clydesdale horses met him in the road. The carriage was manned by 10 very attractive elven & half-elven men & women. The double doors to the carriage opened with flair, and a very flashy elven pirate captain named Blackheart Deathclaw emerged from the carriage.

Of course, Akara remembered the “elven” pirate from the Murder Machine audience, and knew that he was actually a Rakshasha named Kalarel. Kalarel offered the party a ride, including cargo space for their bodies (which he seemed to think they’d use for some nefarious purpose), in exchange for two things: 1) a conversation with his old business partner, Arkara-el (Akara), and 2) a statement that his carriage was part of Akara’s retinue, protected under the Church of the Raven Queen, so that Kalarel could avoid lying in an oath of loyalty to Pelor at the border of Dambrath. After an intra-party pow-wow, it was decided that they needed the lift to get the 10 miles south to Dambrath to stop The Unknown Soldier, so they agreed.

Kalarel told Akara about the joys of being a Rakshasha, how it gave him access to all his memories, and allowed him to enjoy the fullness of life and power, unfettered by morality. He also told a few stories about Akara’s past. According to Kalarel, he and Akara used to be angels of Lusemnee, the chief assassin goddess and daughter of Zehir, god of snakes & assassins. He said they had been on many murder missions together, but that Akara had disappeared just before “things got strange with mother”, that is, when Lusemnee rebelled against her father and began becoming a goddess of redemption. Kalarel said that when Zehir killed mother, they all “fell” and became Deva. His words, however, failed to strike up any memories with Akara, and she stayed silent through the narrative.

Soon, the servants (each of whom appeared to have an illusion-based romance with Kalarel’s pirate alter-ego) told Kalarel that there was a problem up ahead, and it became clear that someone had killed the guards at the border station to Dambrath (right next to the radiantly glowing sign letters “Dambrath welcomes all under the Sun”. Cresting the hill that the guard houses were on, they could see down to the village of Verdant Fields, and the graveyard next to the village, which appeared to have some activity going on inside it. Kalarel offered to hold onto the bodies while the party dealt with these “local politics”, claiming he’d not touch them “as a professional courtesy to an old working partner”, but the party instead took their unmoving friends from him and stashed them in the guardhouse (which they locked) before rushing down to the cemetery.

The fight in the cemetery was rough, to say the least. Slain orc spirits would sometimes attack the party, and sometimes sink into the ground to animate a body there as a Slain Orc Ghoul (which could immobilize with its touch, then eat you alive). Also, there was a ghostly Eye of Gruumsh shaman who began a ritual in orcish that involved storms and the word “Broxigar”. To make things worse, there were two portals through the veil of death open on the battlefield, and each round they spit out more slian orc spirits or shaman ghosts. The party got pretty bogged down by the ghouls and spirits, and never managed to get close enough to the portals to disable them, nor did they get close enough to the summoning ritual to cast a counter ritual. As a result, the ghost of Broxigar, a famous Exarch of Gruumsh (from the Elf-Slaying story), appeared on the battlefield, with the party still fighting lesser undead and uncertain of ever escaping. Broxigar held up his axe as every dark stormcloud poured lightning into it, and the death of our heroes seemed fairly certain.

Fortunately, at the last moment, Avengers assembled to help the party. One was Sikel, the half-elf/half-shadarkai Avenger of Death the party had met in Waterdeep. The other was Ssussun Beluth, the drow Solar Avenger the party had met at the Many Flagons. Ssussun had an extra tie to this adventure, since the party had determined it was likely he who murdered TUS’s family of orcs way back when, and TUS had likely come to this town, Ssussun’s home, to slaughter his friends & family and desecrate the body of his brother (which was among the dead bodies in the caravan) in a vengeful rage. Ssussun marked everyone on the battlefield as an enemy of the Sun, altering his declaration slightly when Sikel told him that the party were allies. The two Avengers then started to hold off the forces in the graveyard, telling the party to rush to Ssussun’s house on the eastern edge of town to find the caster, because if they didn’t stop him, he could do this to every cemetery in Dambrath.

The session ended with the party racing off to a second battle.
The next game will start with a new combat encounter. Mechanically, your encounter powers will have reset, but you’ll have no chance to heal in-between fights. Due to the simplified way we handled the characters, to make things easier Nulath & Nikolai will start the fight at their bloodied value for hit points, but all encounter powers will still be recharged. Any daily powers spent in the Elemental Chaos or during the cemetery fight are still spent. If you were present for both the Elemental Chaos adventure (3 encounters) and the cemetery fight, you’ll start next session with one more action point.

Lesser of two evils? No, this is more a matter of which evil serves you better.

[Due to some last minute player cancellations from Valarie & Mike, this session was hatched-up in the 2 hours before game, and involves a somewhat forced side-quest with only 5 of the players.]

When last we left our players… they were resting somewhat uncomfortably in the remains of the stables next to the gargantuan Mimic-disguised-as-an-inn that they had bloodied as it tried to devour them. It was during the last watch, Jenn/Art Zoe’s watch, that our episode began…

The rain had settled to a light drizzle as a traveler in a brown leather coat & hat approached the fire in the pre-dawn hour. He appeared as a tiefling, though Art Zoe’s trademark paranoia would have none of that. Eventually it was revealed that he was a devil, an “independent contractor for the Nine Hells” named Lee (actually Le Ralak Ahsah-skar E’ht Y’lter’ces… but “Lee” is much easier for all concerned). Lee noticed a familial resemblance between Art and her father, and after some conversational gymnastics she finally revealed herself to be her father’s daughter.

Lee told of a family curse invoked by an ancestor of Art’s, an infernal-pact sorcerer named Keziah from one of the high houses of Bael Turoth (before the Cataclysm… so over 1000 years ago). Keziah had made a deal with a demon lord named Ehkahk, who called himself the Smoldering Duke and lord of the Choking Palace. The problem was that some part of the deal (a hidden part that was disguised under a faulty contract) apparently gave access to all of Keziah’s descendants, so in the centuries since then her family had suffered a tendency to be tempted by fiery/smokey demons and to die horribly in burning-related incidents.

Lee said that the forces he worked for did not like Ehkahk, because he was a chaotic demon who lied in his contracts… totally unlike a proper devil’s contract, which always followed the agreement to the letter and made sure all parties had a chance to read every word. He said that the forces he worked for would love to take out Ehkahk, and that the best way to do that was to examine the contracts he’d made over the centuries, as those were how he garnered most of his power. Unfortunately, his contracts were held in a Fortress of Smoke on a massive coal mote floating in the Elemental Chaos, and Ehkahk had enchanted this fortress to immediately identify any incursion by immortals or creatures native to the outer planes.

This did mean, however, that most of the party would be okay to go on an infiltration mission. Akara/Valarie and Karath/Mike couldn’t go, since Akara is a deva (an immortal) and Karath was born in the Outlands (also because Valarie & Mike couldn’t make it that night). However, due to a time discrepancy, the party could spend an hour or two in that part of the Elemental Chaos and only pass 5 minutes or so in the Prime Material Plane. Lee gave the party a book that would immediately copy any contract touched to it and a special trans-dimensional teleportation gem (empowered by crystallized eladrin souls) to bring the party back when they were through.

In addition, Lee (who had been travelling north) had information about a very upset revenant caravan driver (The Unknown Soldier) with whom he had made a deal. The caravan driver had wanted a ritual, and he had traded a list of recently “available” souls… the List of the Dead that described all the bodies in the caravan. Lee had “looked into” the souls on the list, and said that all were already spoken for. However, he said that if the party succeeded in copying as many contracts as possible from Ehkahk’s warded contract room, he’d give the party the List of the Dead, which he believed had directions to where TUS was going (the next name on the list was the brother of Ssussun Beluth, with whom TUS wants revenge for the whole family murder thing the Pelorian Drow Avenger did to TUS’s family in his last life). He also said that if Art was able to copy the contract Keziah had signed, that he and the forces he worked for would do everything in their power to find any loopholes or ways to use the contract against Ehkahk. These agreements, in conjunction with the knowledge that they’d be freeing the trapped family of eladrin souls (though Lee assured them that "they were not exactly GOOD people who made the deal that resulted in their getting trapped there) in the gem when they activated it, convinced the party to go on this devil’s errand. Lee said he’d discuss the specifics of the ritual he’d given TUS with Karath & Akara while the rest were gone.

In the Elemental Chaos, there was a lot of smoke, as the massive earth mote seemed to be made entirely of coal, and was orbiting perhaps 50 miles away from the Choking Palace, a huge floating cloud castle composed of glowing orange smoke and bursts of blackness. On the coal mote, the party first was attacked by a medium smoke dragon and some flamesoul lance creatures (afterwards they found a magical bottle… see below). Reaching the Fortress of Smoke, they engaged in a number of skill challenges to maneuver into a building of sometimes-solid smoke, filled with smoke creatures that might trip alarms. Eventually they found their way to the stone-floored Contract Room, but were so busy examining it that they missed out on the enemies sneaking up to attack them. The party fought against some smoke-fire bats and enhanced versions of the flamesoul creatures from before… but some of the flamesouls entered the walls and turned them into expanding masses of combusting gas. The party grabbed and copied as many contracts as they could, not reading any but just smacking them against the book and dropping them. Both Art and Scout felt strange sensations upon grabbing one of the contracts each. When they finally activated the portal to leave (seconds before they were burned alive by the white phosphorous-like clouds), the party had copied 11 scrolls, and had taken 3 of the originals with them:
- One was the contract signed by Keziah (the one that made Art’s blood tingle when she grabbed it).
- One was a contract signed by Zira of the assassin’s group Kargatane (the one that made Scout’s shadow tattoo feel like it was burning).
- One has not yet been opened (Scout had mentioned to Karath that he’d try to bring him back a book or something from their trip).
[I’ll have these contracts posted in the Books section of the site in the next few days]

The next game will begin with a five minute conversation between Lee, Karath, and Akara, followed by the return of the scorched five.

Experience:
For two fights and a skill challenge, as well as getting 11 contracts, each party member receives 150 XP. NOTE: To keep everyone even, all characters will get this, even folks who weren’t present.

Rewards & Treasure:
For their travels in (and survival of) this particularly unpleasant area of the Elemental Chaos, the five who participated in this adventure received the free feat Born of Elements (from Heroes of the Elemental Chaos… it gives you a +2 to Endurance & Intimidate, and is a prerequisite for a lot of other cool elemental feats from that book).

The warm brass bottle found on the coal mote is a lvl 7 wondrous item Bottled Smoke. Lisa/Praxis has this item currently.

Next game will hopefully be in 2 weeks, on Sunday, July 15. We can email about specifics. Stay tuned for episode 17: A History of Violence.

"It'd be a tur-duck-en of EVIL!"

“Wyrm-grampa! Tell us the story about the tower again!” The many little dragonborn children seemed for a moment to the ancient bard like the swarms of monsters he’d fought in his youth. He shook off that impression, though, knowing that these days his mind sometimes saw things that were not there.

“Haven’t you heard the bards sing those songs enough already?” Though he had made his life entertaining, the withered old man felt a weariness that was becoming all too frequent these days. And while his great-grandchildren were cute, he hoped (in vain, he knew) that perhaps he could avoid revisiting that night for their entertainment.

“They never tell it right! And they skip the parts they don’t believe!” The children were unrelenting in their demands, and the old bard reached for a pitcher of water to refill his glass before settling down for the tale he knew he’d have to tell.

“Well, I suppose I can’t argue with you, Ioun help me. Truth must be told to those who ask.” Nikolai wetted his parched mouth and called upon his oldest memories to make the tale live again in his mind. "We had just departed Waterdeep for the first time, having laid the great hero Mirt to rest. My friend Scout had just received the title of Trap Master of Ionia, warding off nefarious interests from the City of Splendors for another decade, and again upsetting the dark fey forces that we know had such an impact on his ultimate destiny. We were riding south towards Dambrath aboard what history would call the Caravan of Dead Soldiers. The weather had gotten quite unpleasant as night fell, storming fiercely. Just as we thought we could go no further, we looked up to see a lantern-lit building ahead… a tower-like inn that was exactly what we needed. We all took this as a blessing, a safe shelter from the storm. If only we had known that the night would mean the end of one of us…

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Our session began with some bookkeeping, as everyone showed off their spiffy new level 4 feats. We also settled the last of the conversations that had happened in Waterdeep, with Artania inviting the party to her home in Kislev, when their train got that far, and Mike/Karath verifying the conversation he’d had with the Red Wizardess Lich Valindra Shadowmantle, and the offer she made to turn Kyone into an undead creature to stop the Lolthian transformation. We also verified that Karath had been taught the Simple Automoton ritual that TUS used to animate the cart-drivers.

Then we jumped to the present, as the party was on the wagons heading out of Waterdeep. The road started off calm and uneventful, though The Unknown Soldier refused to talk about the rather ominous and upsetting reading he received from Centauri the previous night. The weather soon turned foul, however, and was soon a raging storm. When all seemed lost, and the storm too great, a tower was seen in the distance, and suddenly the party had an inn to save them from the storm.

Of course, not everyone was happy with this seemingly perfect arrangement. Jenn/Art did not stop voicing her concerns, and Karath hid in the carts in the stable while the rest of the party went inside. The inn had several unsettling factors… like the fact that there were only 7 beds set when they arrived (the 8 of them, minus Karath), plus a pile of rags for the puppy. The hotel proprietor, “Mr. Lipman”, kept speaking of his “Mother”, who was asleep downstairs. There was also the incredible magical investment in the inn, with lights that went on when people approached, its revealed ability to teleport to places it was needed, and the strange collection of rare and lost artifacts in the top floor.

After making sure the carts were not going to be robbed by the two stablehands (“Toby” and “Armand”), Karath animated MUD to shamble behind him, then put Kyone’s crystal on his floating disc and entered the inn as a “separate traveler”. While he was downstairs having gruel pushed on him (and noticing a shiny half-heart used to prop up a table), the party upstairs was making some difficult discoveries. TUS saw an axe on the wall, and Mr. Lipman told the story of an orcish chieftain who came to the inn, whose family and soldiers had been murdered in their sleep by “the sun’s murderer.” The party had told Mr. Lipman about TUS’s undead condition, and the idea that his god had sent him back to accomplish some task. Mr. Lipman knew that Mother was not interested in undead flesh, and handed the axe back to TUS (whose muscles had grown big and whose lower teeth had extended to orcish proportions). TUS charged a wall, which strangely opened-up, letting TUS leap out into the storm. Mr. Lipman said that he could not allow the rest of Mother’s snacks to escape, though, and as the wall closed, a combat began inside the giant mimic known to bards as the Wandering Tower.

Mother’s arrival in the downstairs revealed that the large oven was in fact her, the core of the tower. The entire tower continued to attack the party, with walls doing acid damage and Mother grabbing and chomping on those it grabbed. The smaller mirror mimics helped out their mother, copying the image of party members they hit before creating doubles of themselves to confuse the battlefield. Also, the paired half-heart to the one Karath saw downstairs activated, creating a portal between the 1st and 3rd floors.

The party eventually defeated the lesser mimics, grabbing all the treasures upstairs before rushing down to help Karath with Mother. The spear from upstairs roared when Johny/Scout tried to grab it, but seemed pleased when Casey/Nulath took it. An unfortunate overloading of weight on Karath’s floating disc caused Kyone’s crystal to crash to the ground (damaged, but not shattered). Once Mother became bloodied, the entire tower started to bleed acid, as the core of the tower moved to another floor and began a ritual to teleport it back to the Far Realm, where Mother could heal. Taking excessive ongoing acid damage, the party focused their attacks on one section of the wall, breaking free in just enough time to dive out and escape the bleeding ancient mimic.

When it was all over, the rain helped to wash the acid off the party, though all that remained were the somewhat acid-burned wooden stables… with no horses or carts in them. The party realized that TUS likely wanted to complete the job he was sent to do, and probably took the horses & carts so that he could have an excuse to get close to the family & home of his enemy. The PCs also realized that the brother of a solar Avenger they had met was on their List of the Dead. Taking shelter in the meager remains of the stables, the party rested until the next morning, unsure of how to proceed.

CLUESYOUMAYHAVEMISSED
Among the clues that something was amiss:
-the huge oven in the first floor had no fuel anywhere for the fire;
-Mother’s “children”, Mr. Lipman, Toby, and Armand, were all former polyps of Mother, and served jobs of body parts, with Mr. “lip”-man doing the talking, and “toe”-by and “arm”-and doing the manual labor;
-the toilet on the second floor had nowhere for the waste to go;
-There were no beds or quarters for the staff of the inn
-Though “Mother” was “sleeping downstairs”, there were no stairs going down below the 1st floor
-Mr. Lipman did not actually know the gossip from Waterdeep or any current news, as the tower had only recently arrived;

Experience: The party each received 200 XP for this harrowing battle. Next game will start after an extended rest, though everyone in the party will be down one healing surge to represent the difficulty they had sleeping the previous night.

EPILOGUE…“And that was the beginning and end of a lot of things. The tower disappeared and left a giant pond of acid just after we dove out… and to this day there’s a large swath of emptiness near the road about 10 miles south of Waterdeep, where nothing grows and no birds sing. It’s not magic… just acid and the lingering smell of the many deaths that creature caused. But enough of these old stories… it’s time for you lot to be off to bed!”

Nikolai sighed, the memory coming on stronger than he’d wanted. “Let’s save that story for a different night. Sometimes the lives of heroes don’t fit nicely into happy bard’s tales. Good night, my little wyrmlings.”

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Trap Master of Ionia"

This episode was a flashback to what happened at the Murder Machine with Johny/Scout during the morning of the concert.

Things began with Scout looking to patch things up with his dwarven “friend”, Sonia Stormcaller. When that failed (miserably), he noticed that three of the elvish lasses from Lady Azalea Moonbow’s Academy for Young Ladies were paying special attention to him. After a bit of (allegedly) innocent flirting, Scout took a sip of one of the girl’s drinks, which turned out to be spiked with a sleeping potion. He awoke the next morning, fully rested, in a nice bed in a secret room in the first floor of the Yawning Portal. Lady Azalea Moonbow herself was there to greet Scout as he woke. In the course of conversation, she revealed that she was one of the Lords of Waterdeep, and that she needed Scout to be ready for what lay ahead of him that morning. She said that he should head upstairs to his friends to learn more.

When Scout got upstairs, Lady Artania was there, revealing that 1) Mirt was dead, 2) the Murder Machine’s results would determine thieving guild rights in the city for the next decade, and 3) she would be using her innate shapechanging abilities to pose as Mirt and represent his interests at the Murder Machine that morning. She also mentioned that she had spent some time in the ruins of the great Elven city of Myth Drannor, where she’d happened across some ancient elvish items. She casually left a bag of them on the table, claiming that they weren’t exactly hers… so no magics could say she was unjustly interfering with the contest.

Outside the venue, the party ran into some protesters, including well-known rabble-rouser Marius Commonman, who surreptitiously leg Scout know that the traps he’d face involved water, distractions, and greed. Inside the venue, Scout was introduced to the 5 guild leaders who would be betting on the competition:
- Eyenaught, representative of The Gaze, one of the 13 Skulls of Skullport
- Fernando Clutched-of-Scorch, a half-dragon rep of Tiamat’s Red Wing
- William “Whistler” Sawyer, gentleman from the Coin & Card Society
- Zira, Unseelie Fey and representative of the Shadowfell assassin’s guild Kargatane
- “Mirt” (actually Artania)

Zira, it seems, had some previous dealings with Scout, and made an additional wager with him regarding “gifts” from her to him.

Once Scout was in the prep area, the rest of the party met the wealthy patrons in the audience whom they could petition for extra money to buy “gifts” for Scout during his trials. They were:
- Valindra Shadowmantle, a red wizardess lich from Thay
- “The Widow”, a drow woman representing “Underdark interests”, though something about her seemed a little… off… in the same way that perhaps other faux Drow the party had met were “off”. However, no one interacted with her, so her truths were left undiscovered.
- Blackheart Deathclaw, who appeared as an elven pirate captain… but whom Valarie/Akara seemed to recognize/remember as being a deva named Kalarel. She decided that this being was likely now a Rakshasha using illusion magics, and decided to avoid him, though he flashed a (pointed) toothy smile at her from across the room.
- Zebulon Carver, dragonborn media mogul, owner of several pubs & inns throughout Waterdeep, owner of Waterdeep Community College (go fighting tradesmen!), and publisher of 2 Waterdhaivian newspapers.
- Oristus Caldera, a shadar-kai human wizard & Mage of Saruun, with his brass golem bodyguard (which looked like a large minotaur).
- Skeksi, slimy dragonborn merchant who runs the “no questions asked” shop outside of town.
- “The Crowd”, every other wealthy noble & miscreant who could afford a seat, who together represented one source of potential income to be lobbied.

In addition to lobbying the wealthy for support items (a la Hunger Games), the party could also send one member into a sound-proofed force bubble to support in each room. No attack powers could pass through, but supporting utility powers (like healing, boosts, movement assists, etc) could. The “assistant” also had a chance for some skill usage to help in some way.

CHALLENGE 1: METALFLOOR & FLAMEHALLWAY
Scout’s first challenge involved disarming a two-tiered mechanism in the center of a metal room which was struck with lightning from a statue of Sturm (dwarven god of storms) every round. Nikolai was in the “force bubble” support position, where he was able to soak up some of the lightning damage coursing through the floor. Fortunately, Scout had been given a potion of lightning resistance prior to starting this room, so (even though he failed many of the disarm checks, resetting the device) and also ended up drinking a false potion sent by a wealthy observer with a sick sense of humor, he escaped the room taking very little damage. After that was a hallway with flame cannons, but Scout’s clever use of a crowbar and an acrobatic dive under the last cannon got him through the first challenge almost completely unscathed.

CHALLENGE 2: THEDEEPROOM
In a room that took inspiration from Dagon, abyssal Lord of the Deep, Scout carefully balanced on a tiny path to the center of the room, where he stepped on the activation square, which began filling the room with water. Tentacles then appeared from the four Dagon icons hanging at the mid-point of each wall (just above boxes that Scout presumably needed to fiddle with to disarm the room). Casey/Nulath was in the support bubble, where there was a valve to turn. He quickly realized, though, that righty was not always “tighty”, and that thievery checks were required to see which way would actually slow the water down (as opposed to speeding it up) before an Athletics check could be made to turn the valve. Scout got pretty beat up by the tentacles, which could also slide him into the rising waters, which caused ongoing cold damage. Some desperate petitioning of the crowd got Scout both a magic key (which disabled one of the three lock boxes) and a potion of extra healing (which gave him the most bang for his buck in terms of his dwindling healing surge supply). In the end, it came down to one roll with barely any hit points left… and Scout succeeded!

CHALLENGE 3: THECLASSICTRAP
The next room looked to be completely empty, with Mike/Karath in a force bubble on the opposite end. Karath noticed some arcane energy around the floor, though, and also realized that he could summon his familiar to appear outside the force bubble, in the room itself. Having his dragonling familiar Yig dip just below the floor wherever he could, Karath was able to show Scout that the floor was full of pit traps. A quick look through the floor revealed that they were filled with rot grubs, a particularly nasty thing to get infected with. A quick usage of Karath’s psionic flight ability, followed by a running jump from Scout got Scout to the hallway beyond the room… where an iron boot trap caught his foot, threatening to cut it off. Thankfully, his acrobatics check to escape was successful, and he made it through the rest of the hallway safely, feet intact.

CHALLENGE 4: THECHOICE
The final room featured 3 chests: one of gold, one of dead wood, and one of a swampy-looking wood. Beyond them was the exit. Scout knew that his old foe, Zira, had bet that he would die in this room, so while he thought long and hard about the three chests (conferring as best he could via mimery with Akara/Valarie, in the force bubble spot), he eventually decided to pass them all up, jumping over them to end the challenge. Trumpets blared, lights flashed, and Scout had survived the Murder Machine, winning major thief guild rights for the next decade for Mirt’s organization.

As a prize for winning, Pirelli Gearloose, the Murder Machine’s creator, had his friend Khelben “Blackstaff” Ahroun enchant one item of Scout’s to be +1 better than it was before. He chose to have his nonmagical leather armor enchanted to be +1 magic armor. Meeting with Zira, Scout claimed a second prize from the Unseelie Fey, gaining the lvl 2 theme utility power “Unseelie Eyes”, which gave him “flashlight eyes” and darkvision as an encounter power.

Karath had to follow-through on a deal he’d made with Valindra afterward, taking her to Kyone’s crystal and letting her examine it. Valindra was very pleased to see the “theoretical” paper she’d read put into practice, and told Karath that she could easily remove the crystal if necessary. She also said that while she couldn’t stop the spider magic directly, she was pretty sure if he let her make Kyone a lich, that would stop the spread of the divine spider magic. He said he’d take that under advisement as Valindra told him to look her up in the Neverwinter area should he ever be in that region. She then tried to recruit him into the Red Wizards. Karath took the literature, though he made no commitments.

==============
The rest of “what happened” after that can be read about in the Session 13 recap. To clarify a little bit, the dark figure watching the party leave the city was Zira, who smiled as she watched Scout’s caravan depart. She spoke aloud, though none were there to hear her, “I may have lost again, young ”/campaigns/joelastowski/characters/kaitzer-scout-sorah" class=“wiki-content-link”>Kaitzer, but you are now one step closer to being thrice-gifted by the Fey."

As the caravan drove off into the night in the south, eventually the weather turned worse, beginning to rain. The Unknown Soldier looked up ahead to see an inn on the side of the road, just when they most needed a place to get in out of the rain. He paused, though, saying that something was odd. For some reason, he said, though he had not been to Waterdeep in this lifetime, he had strong memories of this inn…

Experience Points
500 XP… which should put everyone at 3,750… exactly what you need for level 4

"So let's raise a glass to all of us, who go bravely to Death's embrace."

When last we left our heroes… they were returning to their rooms at the Yawning Portal after attending the 80th birthday party for Mirt the Moneylender. Before reaching the inn, they bumped into Nulath/Casey, who had realized that Fisherman’s Wharf was no place to be raising 20 kids, and had connected with the husband of Natalie Mirtson (sister to the deceased soldier William McBride) and had brought the kids to Waterdeep to stay in Mirt’s orphanage there.

In the Yawning Portal, as Scout went off to pursue the dwarven woman he’d somewhat insulted earlier in the evening, the rest of the party engaged The Seekers, a group of 4 fresh adventurers seeking to make their first victory in the halls of Undermountain. The party had a chance to talk to the Seekers (and to bet on them), and as a result better prepared them for the challenges ahead. In the end, their survival came down to a roll of the dice, and only 2 of them survived.

Akara/Valarie also made the acquaintance of Sikel, the raven-cloaked dancer from the party. He is an Avenger of the Raven Queen, and was offering to perform rituals of “Eternal Last Rites” on the Seekers before they went into Undermountain. Sikel explained that the ritual prevented your body from being raised in any way (as undead or via resurrection), and that it was a great way to ensure that you’d be free to travel to your proper place after death. Akara took some issue with this, but Sikel took her aside to assure her that these folks would never be able to afford a resurrection spell anyway, so he was just ensuring that 4 fewer undead entered the world. He also said that he’d had a similar ritual performed on himself when he took the Oath of the Feather, the pledge to be an Avenger of the Raven Queen.

Upstairs, the party sat-in as Centauri did a stellar reading for TUS about his previous life, and revealed a tale of apparent cowardice that sent The Unknown Soldier into a rage, causing him to storm off in fury. Centauri warned the party that he had also seen a potential dark decision in TUS’s future, and that the party would have to watch out for him.

That evening, Akara had a troubling dream, which both Lisa/Praxis and Jenn/Art were somehow viewers of. In the dream, a raven was trapped by a magical bush. When Akara freed it, the raven flew up to the bedroom of Mirt the Moneylender, and took his soul off beyond the veil of death.

Early the next morning, the Eladrin woman Lady Artania Silverlight knocked on the door of the party’s room. She explained that the spell had been hers, and that Mirt had convinced her to cast this spell to keep a natural death from finding him so that he could continue to do good work for the people of Waterdeep. Artania, the party learned, is one of the last of a line of dragons, the Deep Dragons, known for their abilities to polymorph and their access to racial memories. Artania herself is only a half-deep dragon, the other half being Purple Dragon, from which she inherited her psychic powers. After a somewhat abbreviated memoir, the party understood that she was an old and powerful spellcaster who generally had the good of the world as one of her objectives.

However, she had another objective that day: Mirt’s death came at an inopportune time, as he was supposed to represent his “criminal organization” at a meeting that was happening that morning. This meeting, which happened every 10 years, involved betting on the outcome of a competition known at the Murder Machine. Mirt’s side had won for the 40 years that the competition had existed, and other large criminal groups had therefore been forced to sign agreements not to operate within the city for a decade. Artania informed the party that she would be there polymorphed to look like Mirt, and that his sudden death would be announced around noon. The “benefit concert” would then become largely a funeral for Mirt, with mention of the other fallen afterwards.

====================

SOMETHING happened at the Murder Machine, which we’ll learn about next game.

====================

The concert/funeral was epic, as one might imagine, and the ritual of Speaking for the Dead, lead by famous bard Bo Palabram, left many very drained and overwhelmed. Afterward, Nikolai gave a beautiful song about the train of death the New Altairan Heroes brought with them. While many in the crowd were too overwhelmed to pay lots of attention to his song, the more robust veterans in the crowd all heard it, and silently nodded, as they joined Nikolai in paying respect to fallen brothers in arms.

As the party left the city, with an exhausted but victorious Scout on-board, a shadowy female watched them leave (it was Zira, though we wouldn’t learn that until next game). They made their way south through stormy weather, stopping as TUS looked up to see an inn/tower in front of them… one that looked strangely familiar to the revenant.

Next game would normally be on Sunday, May 13… which is Mother’s Day. We may have to push this off another week until Sunday, May 20. We’ll email specific details as the dates get closer.
Next Episode: “The Murder Machine”

Treasure: None, though Praxis bought some replacement adventuring tools and Nulath bought a magical Familiar Pocket for Frodo, her fey puppy.Experience: 200 XP each. Everyone in the party should be at 3,250 right now (lvl 4 = 3,750)

Tell Scout his drow bitch can't do this...

When last we left our heroes, they were in the midst of Mirt the Moneylender’s 80th birthday party in Waterdeep. Their interaction so far had included a crazy dwarven mosh pit, an awkard moment with the son of a man they’d killed, lots of overheard conversations about magical theories and trade disputes, and some introductions to the money-lender himself.

Segment two of the party saw some criminal-types confronting Scout/Johny, offering apologies and a return of his “dropped” money pouch (plus a sizable bonus). Over by Mirt, Nikolai/Micah and Akara/Valarie were witness to a tense confrontation between the head of Waterdeep’s Bahamut church, members of the international Dragonslayers’ Guild, and a human-looking representative of a group of red dragons (Fernando Clutched-of-Scorch) who still held a grudge against Mirt for what the Wheels of Progress did to Infyrana some 60 years ago. The confrontation was broken-up by some calm words from an eladrin woman named Lady Artania, though most present had different memories about what had happened afterward. Nikolai tracked her to the balcony for the third segment, and gained enough of a sense of her to consider sharing information. She also offered him information about the Spider Queen’s servants (like the fact that of the 43 Handmaidens she has active right now, Yaxavanda is the youngest and weakest, though she puts on a big show).

Praxis/Lisa ran into a githzerai ship captain who was very drunk, and (after much gesticulating) got Karath/Mike’s attention to bring him down to meet the man. By the time Karath caught up with him, though, he was passed out behind a bush outside (which was just as well, since he seemed to have very racist ideas about Karath’s githyanki branch of the racial tree). Praxis had heard that the captain’s fancy hat had come from a ‘yank he’d tortured & killed, so Karath had little problem liberating it from the unconscious githzerai (and getting a lvl 3 Circlet of Second Chances in the process).

Scout had quite a night for himself, beginning in the kitchen/drink area, where he was approached by a larger, well-dressed gnome named Anthony Tenor, who said two of his “associates” had a message for him. The gnome & pixie who had stolen from Scout on his way into Waterdeep gave him back his stolen coin purse (with 500 GP extra in it) as the pixie recited a somewhat lower-class verse about not realizing Scout was one of Zira’s people. The kitchen area also held The Seekers, a band of low-level adventurers who were getting well and drunk before heading down into Undermountain later tonight. Their “genius” plan was to attack the monsters while they were sleeping.

Scout next chatted with the female dwarven Stormcaller (Sonia) who had controlled the dwarven dance that he had been a part of in section 1. They seemed to have a connection of sorts, and seemed to be getting quite friendly. They set up a sort of “date” for later in the evening at the Yawning Portal, where Sonia and her clanmates had to be for the rest of the night (to keep “things” from coming up from Undermountain).

Scout then moved on to a new woman… a very sexy and barely clothed drow woman who seemed to be dominating one side of the dance floor with her sensual moves, which attracted male and female eyes of every race. Scout learned that her name was Lilith, and that she was a priestess of Ellistrae. He then challenged her to a very metaphoric dance competition, which included all the violent thrusting and passionate grasping of… other activities. Though he eventually “won”, Lilith seemed happy that such an intense dance had been achieved. Scout also sort of missed the stares of Sonia from the sidelines.

The dance floor also had a few more interesting individuals, including the head of the church of Erathis in the city (Alexander Granitesoul), around whom people seemed to just work more efficiently; and a cloaked pale-skinned man of some elvish descent whose wild & leaping dance style seemed almost like a combat encounter. On closer inspection, his cloak seemed almost to be made of raven feathers. Art/Jenn also made the acquaintance of a female shade here, a very politically-minded woman named Abigail, who referred to Alexander as a “heretic” because he supported a shadow government like the Lords of Waterdeep.

Mirt received a great many gifts from a great many people, including some magical marvels from a circle of Red Wizards, a “rod of six parts” from Nueva Turotha tieflings representing Mestiza Ferana, a magic mirror from the Alexandrian Championship Wyvern Jousting Team (including Primus Imperius, grand-nephew of the king) representing King Titus Imperius of Ionia, a trollhide recliner from Hammerfast dwarves representing Jadzia Hammerfast, and a mithril statue of Mirt picking the pocket of a monstrous illithid from a human group from Pax Humana.

Other major events that night included the stepping-down of Dagault Neverember as the Open Lord of Waterdeep (so that he could go care for the poor victims on the other side of the world in Neverwinter), the elevation of Piergeron Paladinson III to the post of Open Lord, and a massive performance by famous bards.

Of course, the wily actions of disgruntled dairy farmers caused the “accompanyment” of the performance, the bard No-Flute Harry, to lose his voice, so Nikolai had to step in. Interrupting the ho-hum introduction he received from the other bards, Sonia Stormcaller stepped up to give a very dramatic introduction to Nikolai, helped by thunder noises from the rest of her clan. As she left the stage, she told Nikolai to “tell Scout his drow bitch can’t do this”. Nikolai’s performance was aided by tips from Praxis & Scout, and the show (a retelling of the dramatic moments from the adventures of the Wheels of Progress) was so great that it pulled-in Lark, a famous wilden bard, from the outside balcony, to add her birdsong-like voice to the final verses.

As the party ended, Karath had somehow arranged a bardic performance/benefit for the dead soldiers they were returning home, which somehow will also be a benefit for the victims of Neverwinter that Neverember is supporting, which will somehow also be a death ritual overseen by the bard Bo Palabram, which will also be performed on the stage in front of the Paladinson Mansion. This party will happen at sunset the following day (that is, next game).

Oh, and also there was a gnome named Pirelli Gearloose who managed to convince Scout to try out his new “ultimate dungeon defense” system, known as the Murder Machine, the following morning (quite near to the Paladinson stage).

I'll earn lots of money so my dad can quit his job as a criminal

Tuesday, March 27, 2012When Last We Left Our Heroes… they were sitting under the stars with Centauri, at a travelers’ stop a couple miles outside of Waterdeep. Centauri had offered to read their fortunes.

After players decided which sign they were, they asked questions of Centauri, who did his best to answer according to what he saw in the sky. Many of his answers were a bit vague, and sometimes incredibly troubling (like the message that Akara/Valarie may not have a next lifetime, which is kind of terrifying to a deva), but he made up for it with some quick-thinking and “practiced bedside manner” (like when he suggested heavier pastas to calm Art/Jenn’s inner turmoil). That night Art had another prophetic dream, this time about Krup & Vandemaar cheering and running north with some kind of Baphometish artifact in their hands. The artifact, which looked like a sphere (about softball-sized) with a maze running around it, also looked like it had their old friend Nulath trapped inside, with something dark chasing her. The next morning, as Art discussed her dream with Praxis/Lisa and Akara (who had awoken to find that her body was disease-free), Nicolai/Micah happened upon a lizardman merchant who was looking to unload a “cursed maze bauble” that conveniently matched Art’s dream. After some arcane inspection, Karath/Mike was able to determine that the item was probably a portkey of some sort, but that it was shiftable (in a rubic’s cube type fashion), and that to unlock it he’d have to spend time studying it before each move. Thinking that whatever it was, it was better to keep it out of the hands of their enemies, the party took the artifact and headed to Waterdeep.

===============MINORQUEST: UNLOCK BAPHOMET’S MAZE
Each extended rest (after time spent contemplating the intricacies of it), the primary can make an Arcana check, which can be assisted, to manipulate the sphere. The total number of successes and/or failures is unknown, but you have been able to determine several things:
1. the sphere will track individual successes, and one user has to hit the required number of successes to unlock the item
2. overall success will mean opening up some kind of teleport/portal to somewhere, likely a maze, where something powerful is
3. overall failure will result in the primary being whisked away, likely into the maze, to be trapped and hunted.
===============

In the City of Splendors, the party got rooms at the Yawning Portal and set about their actual task, delivering the body of a dead soldier to his parents. The McBride family was obviously not happy, and it took a bit of finessing, but the party did about as well as you can in such a situation, and William McBride was returned home. Afterwards the party went back to the Yawning Portal for some heavy drinking, then did a little bit of site-seeing around the city, visiting a shrine to Melora (where they got troubling news about the sample of the World Tree they’re carrying) and the City of the Dead (where Akara had some personal reflecting time to ponder the dead Deva druid’s obliterated soul). Scout also managed to get hussled into thinking he was being poorly hussled in a fiendish double-cross by a clever thieving crew.

Fast-forward to the party, where our group of heroes had six different areas to explore…

In the first segment of the party, Art/Jenn observed the outer courtyard, where members of the elite justice team the Gray Hands kept all guests from causing problems. The Gray Hands were watched by a Shade woman who was possibly a holy person of some sort.

The party left the foyer empty for part 1 of the party.

In the main hall, Karath/Mike met with Mirt himself, and seemed to get on better with him than many of the Waterdeep nobles who were actually trying to impress the birthday man. Karath then spoke briefly with Mirt’s attendant, the deva Elanna Mirtdaughter, who answered some of his questions about a deva reincarnation. She also shared what memories she had of the warforged, which wasn’t much.

The balcony area was where Praxis/Lisa followed Centauri. Out there, under the night sky, Centauri went on about stars to anyone who’d listen, until his conversation was interrupted by a human male with a black staff (apparently an old friend), who was eager to discuss the thaumaturgical possibilities put forth in a paper he’d just read (the IT Crowd’s paper about the arcane/divinity matrix theory that is, in fact, manifest around Kyone right now). This blackstaffed man seemed to understand far more of the concepts than anyone listening, and Praxis got the sense that if anyone could recreate that effect, it would be this man. Apart from that, there was a scantily-clad drow woman who had no qualms about speaking ill of the Spider Queen, even openly using her name and insulting her. General feelings were that this lady was either very strong, or very stupid.

The kitchen/prep area is where Akara/Valarie and Nicolai/Micah chose to go. They observed an altercation between the dessert mistress, a Halfling Chocolatier named Sweetness, and several men dressed in overalls. It was later learned that they had been members of a cattle ranchers union, and were arguing with Sweetness over milk prices. She would not budge, though, and they vaguely threatened that she’d “be sorry” before they stormed off. Nicolai then spoke with a Halfling boy who looked to be a “special helper” in this area. The boy’s name was Halfpint, and he spoke about how Mirt had adopted him after his dad had to sell him to pay off some gambling debts. But Halfpint was determined to make lots of money doing legitimate work so that he could help his dad stop being the criminal head of the bandit group Tantalus. Neither Nicolai nor Akara had the heart to tell the boy that his father was, in fact, dead… but I’m sure that won’t ever come back to bite them. Halfpint also hinted to Nicolai that they should stick around for a big chocolate surprise later on, because there would be, in his words, a “chocolate dragon.” The only other excitement in this area was the arrival of several well-groomed humans who off-handedly told a human server that they were just “getting some food that hadn’t been contaminated by any lesser races.” These guys were from Pax Humana, and neither Nicolai nor Akara tried to engage them.

The dance floor was the final area, and Scout/Johny decided to make this his home. There he observed the antics of No-Flute Harry, a sound-effects Halfling bard who would occasionally add instruments to the orchestral arrangement with his voice. The conductor, a human referred to as “the Dude”, recovered nicely, though. On the dance floor, Scout found himself in the midst of a literal storm of dwarves: wildly raging dancing dwarves from Clan Sturmhammer. The tempest of dwarves was kept in check by a female dwarf who looked like a cleric of sorts, and seemed to be directing the dwarves like the clouds of a storm so that they didn’t hurt anyone. At the end of the dance, she had caught Scout’s eye, and struck his raised chalice with a superficial lightning bolt, as he was clearly the highest point in this thunderstorm. The dwarves then left to drink, and Scout considered following.

Part 1 of the party ended with Mirt on the main stage, thanking everyone for coming, and beginning to talk about old times… until he was effectively heckled off the stage by the senile old archmage Vangerdahast.

As it was approaching midnight, and many folks were less than fully conscious, we called game at that point, so we’ll begin our next game mid-party.

Quests
Accepted minor quest: Unlock Baphomet’s Maze
Research done into major quest: Revive the World Tree

XP, Treasure, & Whatnot: We’ll wait till the party actually finishes before we deal with this.

I trust you to stop things that are going that shouldn't...

When last we left our heroes… they had survived an attack by a demon plague-infected druid and her viney servants. Though not 100% unscathed, they escaped and were able to sleep the rest of the night.

The next day they started off on the road, only to stop when they saw a body in their path. After checking for ambushers, they investigated, and found that it was a barely-clothed, heavily-beaten older human male. They took him onto a cart and began administering healing care, and eventually he awoke. His name was Centauri and he belonged to a group of astrologers called the Star League. Valarie/Akara had a sudden flash of memory about the constellation shown in the Star League’s symbol and how it related to Dagon, which explained the unpleasant feeling Micah/Nicolai got from his shield when he approached Centauri.

In discussions with Centauri after that, the party learned that he was heading to Waterdeep to attend Mirt’s party, and that Centauri’s father had worked on a secret military project in Kislev some 40+ years ago dealing with weaponizing the “Eldarions” (an elvish word meaning “sons of stars”), which was his word for the warforged. Centauri was curious about MUD, but his curiosity had to wait, as there was another body in the road.

This one turned out to be dead, and also bait for an ambush by the brigand crew Tantalus. After a decent skirmish where everyone got to try out their new level 3 characters, Tantalus was no more. A bit of searching later revealed their secret cave stash, which included a number of stolen items and all of Centauri’s stuff.

Gathering the loot, the party continued south towards Waterdeep. With Mount Waterdeep looming ahead of them and the walls of the City of Splendors just barely visible, they stopped at a traders’ waypoint which some of the Lizardman attendants told them was called the “Dragon’s Horde”. Eventually they met the green-scaled dragonborn “Skeksi”, a man of questionable morals, who offered to buy any loot they may have found “no questions asked.” He also said that he had recently acquired some items of a darker, shadowy nature, and indicated (though not directly) that they may have been from the infamous Shadowfell assassin guild known as Kargatane (see the Bard’s Tale section for more on them).

The night ended with Centauri offering his services to repay the party. He used his star magicks to remove the curse on Nicolai’s shield. He also offered to read the stars for any party member. In addition, it seems as if he’ll be an “in” into Mirt’s party in Waterdeep. Oh, and Akara made her check to get cured of the Abyssal Plague.

Almost like a deva... but with demony flesh patches, whiskers, and some orangish fur...

When Last We Left Our Heroes… They had gone a few miles down the road from the inn where they’d become heroes and engaged-in/broke-up a bar fight, collecting a new mobile member (Scout/Johny) and two new non-mobile members (Mecha Unit Delta, a comatose Kislev warforged; and Kit Chen, Scout’s now-dead brother).

NOTE: Jenn could not be present for this game, though her character, Art Zoe, was.

Kerath/Mike took some time to examine the Kislevan Warforged body he had stolen/kidnapped, and after conferring with the group a bit, came to the conclusion that there was no soul present in the body, and that his evil Vecnite book (that he had shown the warforged) was now completely blank. After the customary gathering of firewood & berries (which involved a Nature check that said the plants were very healthy here… likely the work of a druid in the area), we began by setting watches for the evening rest. The first watch saw no activity other than some nocturnal critters doing their things in the heavy underbrush.

The second watch, however, saw a bit more activity. Nocturnal critters made a large commotion, heading in a southward direction. It turned out that this was just a reaction, though, to something worse in a northern area… something that reached out to steal Art Zoe/Jenn from her bedroll and pull her through the underbrush, but somehow not breaking it. After taking a few moments to figure out light sources, the party engaged in a skill challenge to track the captors. Most did okay, though a few walked into tree branches or stepped in hidden holes, losing a few healing surges along the way.

When they got to the clearing, they saw what appeared to be a druid standing over Art’s body on a raised ridge. All around were animated bloodthorn vines, which wasted no time in attacking the party. As the party moved forward and the druid teleported from tree-to-tree, though, it became clear that something was very wrong. At first glance she looked like a sick Deva, with sores and patches of rough flesh. However, she also had scattered tufts of an unhealthy-looking orange fur, and other feline features that appeared not to have fully manifested. Though it wasn’t obvious at first, Akara/Valarie realized that she was witnessing something unheard of in Deva physiology: a partially-transformed Rakshasha. As far as she knew, this could not happen, but nonetheless she decided to kill the druid before the process could be completed.

The fight was fairly fierce, with newcomer Scout/Johny taking on one of the vines on his own in a dark corner of the field (or so he says). After the druid was hit with an elemental blast of cold, her flesh seemed to adjust to deal with it (as happens with demons), so it was theorized that she was partially demonic. When she was bloodied, that theory was confirmed, as the transformation completed and the remaining deva flesh turned into demonhide.

As Akara dealt the killing blow to the demon-druid, she had another awful feeling. Being connected to death in the ways that she was, she could feel the true death of the druid’s soul. It wasn’t as if she’d reincarnate as a deva elsewhere (or even as a rakshasha). It was as if her soul had been turned into a demon’s soul, and so her deva self truly died.

These fears were confirmed in the aftermath, as Art was revived and a nearby hovel revealed a journal that had belonged to the druid, whose name was Hassan-Je (bonus points if anyone knows where I got that name… but don’t worry, there’ll be plenty more references from that particular source in the future). Hassan-Je had found some kind of demon that had clawed at her before she killed it. In the time since then, she had felt a demonic poison (actually a lesser form of the Abyssal Plague) infecting her body and soul. It appeared that she had tried to purchase a book from a traveling salesman to learn more about the Abyss, but it had turned out to be a tome that was more about the Dawn War and not much use to her. As her soul was slowly turned demonic, her Deva body reacted in the only way it knew to respond to an evil soul… it started manifesting tigerlike Rakshasha traits.

That mention of the claw wound infecting the druid gave Akara pause, because both she and Art had claw marks on them. Art seemed to shake it off (i.e., we made the saving throw for her), but Akara did not. The next morning, she awoke to find that she had grown whiskers.

XP: Everyone should now be at 2,250 XP, which is exactly enough to put y’all up to level 3.

Treasure: 50 GP Healing ritual components,
+1 Chronicle of the Dawn War Tome [Kerath] Hassan-Je’s journal
[Cure Disease Ritual] NOTE: As this is a level 6 ritual, y’all won’t be able to cast it for several levels. Once you get to level 6, though, anyone of you with the Ritual Caster feat will be able to take this one.

Next Game: Set for Tuesday, March 13, hopefully around 7 PM. It will begin with everyone at level 3, just coming off an extended rest (full HP, all powers recharged, everyone at 1 Action Point). If you have questions about the levelling process, try to come a little earlier on Tuesday (I get out of work at 5) and we can go through options together.

Swear allegiance to Pelor or die.

When we last left our heroes… they were serving as guards on a coffin caravan,carrying the bodies of dead soldiers away from The Line and back to their homes. After passing anumber of squads of soldiers heading in the other direction (towards the fighting) and some brief conversationattempts with TUS, the unknown soldier Revenant who feels it is his duty to deliver the bodies of deadsoldiers to their families, the caravan happened upon the Many Flagons, a 3-story-tall super tavern that catersto soldiers, and a known bardic “proving grounds” and site for story origination.

The busy tavern gave the characters many social interaction opportunities. After getting some drinks, they proceeded to try and listen in for rumors and seek out other topics of interest. After hearing several variations on the story of how Cardinal Obarskyr and his men saved the day just as the Line was about to fall to orcish hordes, Nicolai [Micah] found his way up to the stage area, where Copperpiece, the gnomish stage manager, put him next in the line-up to compensate for the last Ionian to perform, who was horrible (see also William Hung).

Nicolai gave a rousing tale of the exploits of the New Altairan Heroes (edited slightly to avoid mentioning any compromising/unresolved issues, like the gem-encrusted, Lloth-infected drow they’ve got in their caravan… though not at all trying to hide the name of the Yochol Yaxavanda), which got the whole crowd cheering and out of their seats. It is likely that their tale will be carried to many nations as a result of this performance.

After Nicolai, another dragonborn bard, named Scarmagdalon, got up with his guitar to sing a song about Detham’s Legion, whom Nicolai had been asking about. Turns out Detham’s Legion is an Arkhosian revival army dedicated to killing the foes of dragonborn and bringing back the Arkhosian Empire. Unfortunately, the song had a very anti-tiefling sentiment to it, so most of the tieflings in the hall found other places to be. As Scarmagdalon & Nicolai were the two greatest hits of the night, they were called back up onstage for an encore. They did a performance of “Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut”, which has a pretty well-known tune, but the dancing and spinning often referred to in the song made many patrons have to “take a break” after the performance was done.

Random rumors thrown around at the bar included a tale that somewhere in Coventry, a team of archaeologists had just uncovered what might be the ruins of a large city from ancient Cappodocia, though teams of historians were still preparing to go in.

Meanwhile, in one of the drinking rooms (where music from the stage was magically piped-in as background noise), Kerath [Mike] had found a warforged Kislever soldier, named Mecha Unit Delta (MUD), and was discussing the nature of warforgedness with him (after distracting the dwarven soldiers who were sitting with him). Across the room sat several soldiers from Dambrath, along with their commander, a drow with glowing sun eyes (Ssussun Beluth, an Avenger of Pelor). And, back in a corner near the dwarven table, sat two Tieflings: Scout [Johny] and his brother, who wore Ionian military garb (but no armor). The two argued about whether the brother should be rushing off to join the army, when he was a skilled baker who had no combat experience. The brother wanted to prove to the folks back home that tieflings could be heroes.

Several things happened at once in the moments that followed. Kerath, hearing that MUD was familiar with over 100 languages, showed him the Vecnal book he’d taken off the necromancer in Fishermen’s Wharf. MUD went still, and the light disappeared from his eyes as he looked at the book. The Dambrathan soldiers & Kislever Dwarves started hurling insults, and one Kislever hurled a poorly-aimed flagon, which smacked Scout’s brother in the head, knocking him off-balance. Scout’s brother fell backwards in his chair, landing on the blade of one of the dwarves’ axes, which had been put on the ground to be out of the way. As he died, the dwarves cried out that the Drow had ordered his slaves to start murdering… and the bar fight was on.

The fight featured 4 (or maybe 5) forces… the Dambrathans and their drow commander, the Kislever dwarves, the drunken brawlers who just wanted to fight, and the party (including Scout). In addition, 2 strange spectres appeared, though they didn’t really fight much, and only Praxis [Lisa] & Akara [Valarie] could see them. Art spent the fight outside, still dealing with the severe anti-tiefling racism she’d witnessed inside. The combat ended with a few dead dwarves, Scout’s dead brother, and the Dambrathans being asked to leave. The spectres disappeared, leaving the mystery of their existence to be pondered by Praxis & Akara.

In the end, the party wound up looking like the good guys in this fight. Many of the patrons were happy to talk to them after that (and happy to assume that the evil Drow had started everything), so the party received a number of rumors about stuff going on in the region (including more exact info about exactly where in Coventry – the district of Eridu – the Cappodocian dig was occurring). Scout joined the group, as his brother’s body was added to those soldiers that were on their way to their final resting place. Kerath took charge of the inanimate MUD, setting him in a seated position on one of their carts. The party decided to head down the road a ways to make camp, rather than stay in the inn where so much trouble had happened.

Experience: Everyone got 200 for the night (not enough to push them to level 3, but they’re pretty close).Treasure:MUD has a pouch with 600 GP in it, but the party has not yet decided to take that. Scout managed to abscond with 50 GP from his thieving efforts earlier in the bar.

Next Game: Set for Thursday, March 1. It will begin as the PCs make camp on the side of the dark road. Be prepared for episode 10: “If you go out in the woods tonight…”